That he would probably lean towards the bulls first and after the lottery I’m sure now that he would pick the bulls before you guys (if hes offered both jobs).

As little experience as he has, I take Porter over Avery. Porter is more of an unknown although he does have two years head coaching to learn from if anything bothered to research those Bucks teams (and I would hope the Suns staff would do that).

While with the Little General you know what your getting and it isn’t good. I think one main reason he got canned in Dallas was b/c of his inability to let his veteran PG play and his need to over-control. Kind of like Skiles. In fact, I think Avery and Skiles are very much alike. Both had early success with talented teams but their style didn’t really last.

I would much rather see what Porter can do. He could be like some of the other solid coaches / former players from his era. Nate McMillian. Mo Checks. Even Fine Hair Guy in Sactown has done well.

Taking a chance on a lesser known (and less expensive guy) like Porter vs. a known control freak like Avery is a no brainer to me.

And btw – I wouldn’t be so sure the Bulls want to go right back to the same style of coach they just fired.

OTOH, I do hope he gets a job somewhere just so we don’t have to see him on TV talking next year.

His voice and press conferences are awesome. I don’t understand how you can not like that.

Anyhow.

About his coaching:

I think he got fired because he was adamantly against the Jason Kidd trade which was the correct opinion. He’s had as much success as any other team out there. He’s beat the Spurs.

I mean, you can always make the argument that a coach from a successful team only looks good because of the players (Phil Jackson, Popovich, Pat Riley), but at least he’s had some success.

Of course, all this is irrelevant. We’re not even interviewing him.

ZF, you are not correct when you say Avery was fired mainly because of Cuban’s goofy meddling. All the fans wanted him gone. The players tuned him out. He was not only against the Kidd trade, but once it happened he could not figure out how to make it work. his isolation-dominated offensive schemes should have been altered. You think you can’t run with Kidd, Terry, Howard, and Nowitzki? He never even tried.

He wore out his team with the constant high intensity and manic mantras. The 2006 team would not have beaten Phoenix without Raja and KT injured, not to mention STAT. Once they did, Avery presided over the most shocking collapse in NBA Finals history to a so-so Miami team with one superstar, an aging and defensible Shaq, and a team of role players. His response was to cook up an offense based almost exclusively on isolations and to create a frantic defensive atmosphere that smoked the league in the regular season, but was doomed to fail in the playoffs. Also, for those who point out that AJ got them past the Spurs, this was only accomplished through an inexplicable brain fart by Ginobli at the end of game 7 (Why doesn’t Manu make those mistakes against us?).

I’m basically saying I am not sold on AJ as a big-time coach. Look at Westphal’s record. But the players tuned him out also.

I do not think any coach that loses his players like that should be on our list.

MikeD should have gone to Chicago. Imagine now the 7SOL offense triggered by Derrick Rose, with Deng and Gordon on the wings. I think Tyrus Thomas would flourish in a D’Antoni system.

Porter has had about the same amount of years as a head coach as AJ. I don’t know about as an assistant. I think the point is that the years are within shouting distance of one another.

I agree, though, that he would seem like a logical choice to take over this veteran team. It would only be for two years, though. It would be “win now” hire just like the roster.

Press conferences would be great, wouldn’t they? Do you think Sarver would have to hire a Smeagol-to-English translator?

from a Mavs fan who supported Johnson, but was glad to see him go.

First off, the numbers dont lie. His resume is one of the best out there, but it is misleading. He HELPED take this team over the “Spurs” hump we could never get over in previous years. But after that, and since, he has had a track record of getting his team to a point, and then out-coaching himself.

Avery coach’s his team, the same way Pop did when they won the championship their first year. He wouldnt go away from that inside-outside game, and had a hard time changing it for his personal he had to work with. There have been all types of reports saying that Westphal was brought on this year to help open up the offense, yet Avery never listened to him.

For all the reason’s many of my Suns fans didnt like the coach with three first names, the Mavs fans didnt like Avery for almost the same exact reasons… Just replace defense, with offense. Does not playing and let younger guys develop ring a bell? Stuck in his ways type approach sound familiar? Clashes with the FO remind you of anyone?

Both had their control freakish issues, though I’d argue D’Antoni was a little more soft spoken than AJ was. But if Avery was brought to phx, would it make your team better? Defensively? Absolutely, but compared to what MD had done with the defense before, anyone who is brought in could make that claim. It’s everything else though that would drive you guys nuts. He runs his players long and hard in practices, which for guys like Hill and Shaq, might not go over well. He has a small-man syndrome about him that when combined with Shaq’s and Amare’s ego, will not clash well AT ALL. His vision of how the offense should be run is not going to play to the best of your teams capabilities, unless you like watching Nash feeding the ball to Shaq down low, and watching Hill and Amare in Iso sets.

One of the the guys closest to the situation in Dallas, Mike Fisher, who runs a blog which url is reportedly owned by the Maverick organization, wrote an article about Avery Johnson’s possibilities of going to Phx. It’s a great read from an outside perspective, if you would like to know why Avery WOULDNT be a great fit there. Here are a few highlights of it…

Steve Nash has a voice in that organization, just as Dirk Nowitzki has a voice in Dallas. Nash and Nowitzki are best friends who listen to each others’ voices. So when Nash is pitching in by doing his due diligence on coaching candidates, and he calls Dirk to find out what went down in Dallas. … well, you get the picture.

Avery Johnson deserves a tremendous amount of credit for building himself into an NBA force. He would not be in a position to collect $4 million-a-year paychecks (from Mark Cuban or elsewhere,coaching or not) without his feistiness, his combativeness, his ego. But it’s that Michael Irvin philosophy all over again: "A man’s greatest strength is also his greatest weakness.’’

At any rate, best of luck to you guys… I still think Del Harris is the best fit for you guys… if you can lure him out of retirement.

First off, I’ll agree with all those painting Avery with the D’Antoni brush-their weaknesses appear to be very similar, and Avery looks to be wound a little too tight for the Suns. I think he would be a disaster for this team with this personnel-the Suns need a coach who will do the work in practice, and then get out of the way while Nash runs the offense at game time.

Secondly, I’m a bit surprised that Michael Cooper’s name hasn’t made the list, unless he’s not interested in coaching the men’s league any longer.

Given what we’ve seen from the Sarver/Kerr style of “keep your friends close” management, I’m guessing Hornacek is going to the the hire. He’s apparently been on their radar for a couple years now, he’s got ties to the organization, and he’ll come cheap as a rookie coach to boot.

Think in context of Reload or Rebuild. Is there any coach you would say “Reload”?

For me, either it’s Avery or its “Rebuild”. I don’t see any rookie coach or retread out there that I would hope to make this frankenstein team work.

There’s lot’s of reason why Avery wouldn’t work, but if not him, can anyone available make the current roster work? I say no.

There is no rebuilding with Shaq/Nash/Hill still here. Shaq’s not going to give away $40M, so this is the core of the roster for the next two years.

Here’s a plea to Doug Collins.